


^Y( EVENTFUL EIPEDITION J 





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C> RESULTING IN THE DISCOVERY OF THE IDOLATROUS CITY OF^O 





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VC REMARKABLE AZTEC CHILDREN.^ , 



"^Descendants and Specimens of the Sacerdotal Caste, (now 



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O nearly extinct,) of tlie Ancient Aztec Founders of the O 

<''~\^ Ruined Temples of that Country, ,---fC~^ 

Oly-O -rrl^To) described by (2j2:^ Oifb 

€^¥^ 

JOHN L. STEVENS, ESQ., 

AND OTHER TRAVELLERS. 

V§W--PEDRO VELASQUEZ, 

^^^-^!!C^^^-^X^ OF SAN 





PRINTED BY J. W. BELL, 

178 FULTON STREET. 






EYEITFUL EIPEDITIOI 

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REMARKABLE AZTEC CHILDREnT^Cp 

^\i:^rX_JL/0 C^^r^.^ C^JL_^0^^^ y 
icendants and Specimens of the Sacerdotal Caste, (no^ V" 

nearly extinct,) of the Ancient Aztec Founders of the (J 

~\ Ruined Temples of that Country, ,/C^ 

OliO .ri25o> "ESCRIBED BY (^^Q^ OhT^ 

JOHN L. STEVENS, ESQ., 

AND OTHER TRAVELLERS. 



ft- 

nCMAa-PEDRO VELASQUEZ, 

>0'^»-^-;>'-'V^ O'' SAN SALVADOR. \^0"^-—i-^ 













,'/ 



PROPILE ILLUSTRATIONS 

FROM 

CENTRAL AMERICAN RUINS, 

OF 

ANCIENT BAGES STILL EXISTING 
IN IXIMAYA. 






The above three figures, sketched from engravings in " Stevens's Central 
America," will be found, on personal comparison, to bear a remarkable and 
convincing resemblance, both in the general features and the position of the 
head, to the two and living Aztec children, now exhibiting in the United States, 
of the ancient sacerdotal caste of Kaanas, or Pagan Mimes, of which a few 
individuals remain in the newly discovered city of Iximaya. See, the follow- 
ing Memoir, page 31. 





These two figures, sketched from the same work, are said, by Senor Ve- 
lasquez, in the unpublished portion of his narrative, to be " irresistible like- 
neaaes " of the equally exclusive but somewhat more numerous priestly caste 



( 



of Mahahoom, still existing in that city, and to which belonged Vaalpeor, the 
official guardian of those children, as mentioned in this memoir. Velasquez 
states that the likeness of Vaalpeor to the right hand figure in the frontispiece 
of Stevens' second volume, which is here also the one on the right hand, was 
as exact, in outline, as if the latter had been a daguerreotype miniature. 

While writing his "Narrative" after his return to San Salvador, in the 
spring of the present year, (L850) Senor Velasquez was favored, by an Ame- 
ican gentlemn of that city, with a copy of " Layard's Nineveh, " and was 
forcibly struck with the close characteristic resemblance of the faces in many 
of its engravings to those of the inhabitants in general, as a peculiar family 
of mankind, both of Iximaya and its surrounding region. The following are 
sketches (somewhat imperfect) of two of the male faces to which he refers : — 




And the following profile, from the same v/ork, is pronounced by Velasquez 
to be equally characteristic of the female faces of that region, making due allow- 
ance for the superb head dresses of tropical plumage, with which he describes 
the latter as being adorned, instead of the male galea, or close cap, retained 
in the engraving. 




These illustrations, shght as they are, are deemed interesting, because the 
Iximayans assert their descent from a very ancient Assyrian colony nearly co- 
temporary with Nineveh itself — a claim which receives strong confirmation, 
not only from the hieroglyphics and monuments of Iximaya, but from the 
engravings in Stevens' volumes of several remarkable objects, (the inverted 
winged globe especially,) at Palenque — once a kindred colony. 

It should have been stated in the following Memoir, that Senor Velasquez, 
on his return to San Salvador, caused the two K'aana children to be baptized 
into the Catholic Church, by the Bishop of the Diocess, under the names of 
Maximo and Bartola Velasquez. 



MEMOIR 



OF A RECENT 



EVENTFUL EXPEDITION 



IN 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



In tlie second volume of his travels in Central America — than 
which no work ever published in this country, has created and 
maintained a higher degree of interest,'both at home and abroad — 
Mr. Stevens speaks with enthusiasm of the conversations he 
had held with an intelligent and hospitable Padre, or Catholic 
priest, of Santa Cruz del Quiche, formerly of the village of Cha- 
jul ; ^d of the exciting information he had received from him, 
concerning immense and marvellous antiquities in the surround- 
ing country, which, to the present hour, remain entirely unknown 
to the world. The Padre told him of vast ruins, in a deserted 
and desolate region, but four leagues from Vera Paz, more ex- 
tensive than Quiche itself; and of another ruined city, on the other 
side of the great traversing range of the Cordilleras, of which 
no account has been given. But the most stimulating story of all, 
was the existence of a living city, far on the other side of the great 
sierra, large and populous, occupied by Indians of the same cha- 
racter, and in precisely the same state, as those of the country 
in general, before the discovery of the continent and the desola- 
ting conquests of its invaders. 

The Padre averred that, in younger days, he had climbed to 
the topmost ridge of the sierra, a height of 10 or 12,000 feet, 
and from its naked summit, looking over an immense plain, ex- 
tending to Yucatan and the Gulf of Mexico, had seen, with his 
own eyes, in the remote distance, " a large city, spread over a 
great space, with turrets white and glittering in the sun." His 



6 

account of tlie prevalent Indian report concerning it was, that no 
white man had ever reached this city ; that the inhabitants, who 
speak the Maya language, are aware that a race of white stran- 
gers has conquered the whole country around them, and have 
hence murdered every white man that has since attempted to 
penetrate their territory. He added, that they have no coin or 
other circulating medium ; no horses, mules, or other domestic 
animals, except fowls, " and keep the cocks under ground, to 
prevent their crowing being heard." This report of their slen- 
der resources for animal food, and of their perpetual apprehension 
of discovery, as indicated in this inadequate and childish expe- 
dient to prevent it, is, in most respects, contradicted by that of 
the adventurous expedition about to be be described, and which, 
having passed the walls of their city, obtained better information 
of their internal economy and condition than could have been ac- 
quired by any Indians at all likely to hold communication with 
places so very remote from the territory as Quiche or Chajul. 

The effect of these extraordinary averments and recitals of the 
Padre, upon the mind of Mr. Stevens, together with the deliber- 
ate conclusions which he finally drew from them, is best expressed 
in his own language. 

" The interest awakened in us, was the most thrilling I ever 
experienced. One look at that city, was worth ten years of an 
every day life. If he is right, a place is left where Indians and 
a city exist, as Cortez and Alvardo found them ; there are living 
men who can solve the mystery that hangs over the ruined cities 
of America ; who can, perhaps, go to Copan and read the inscrip- 
tions on its monuments. No subject more exciting and attractive 
presents itself to any mind, and the deep impression in my mind, 
will never be effaced. 

" Can it be true ? Being now in my sober senses, I do verily 
believe there is much ground to suppose that what the Padre told 
us is authentic. That the region referred to docs not acknowledge 
the government of Guatamala, and has never been explored, and 
that no white man has ever pretended to have entered it, I am 
satisfied. From other sources we heard that a large ruined city 
was visible ; and we were told of another person who had climbed to 
the top of the sierra, but, on account of the dense clouds resting 
upon it, he had not been able to see anything. At all events, 
the belief at the village of Chajul is general, and a curiosity is 
aroused that burns to be satisfied. We had a craving desire to 
reach the mysterious city. No man if ever so willing to peril his 
life, could undertake the enterprise, with any hope of success, with- 
out hovering for one or two years on the borders of the country. 



studying tlie language and character of the adjoining Indians, and 
making°acquaintance with some of the natives. Five hundred 
men could probably march directly to the city, and the invasion 
would be more justifiable than any made by Spaniards ; but the 
government is too much occupied with its own wars, and the 
knowledge could not be procured except at the price of blood.— 
Two young men of good constitution, and who could afford to 
spend five years, might succeed. If the object of search prove a 
phantom, in the wild scenes of a new and unexplored country, 
there are other objects of interest ; but, if real, besides the glo- 
rious excitement of such a novelty, they will have something to 
look back upon through life. As to the dangers, they are al- 
ways magnified, and, in general, peril is discovered soon enough 
for escape. But, in all probability, if any discovery is made, it 
will be made by the Padres. As for ourselves, to attempt it 
alone, ignorant of the language and with the mozos who were a 
constant annoyance to us, was out of the question. The most 
we thought of was a climb to the top of the sierra, thence to look 
down upon the mysterious city ; but we had difficulties enough 
in the road before us ; it would add ten days to a journey already 
almost appalling in the perspective ; for days the sierra might be 
covered with clouds ; in attempting too much we might lose all ; 
Palenque was our great point, and we determined not to be diver- 
ted from the Course we had marked out." Vol. II, p. 193-196. 
It is now known that two intrepid young men, incited proba- 
bly by this identical passage in Mr. Stevens's popular work— one 
a Mr. Huertis of Baltimore, an American of Spanish parents, from 
Cuba, possessing an ample fortune, and who had travelled 
much in Egypt, Persia, and Syria, for the personal inspection of 
ancient monuments ; and the other, a Mr. Hammond, a civil-engi- 
neer from Canada, who had been engaged for some years on sur- 
veys in the United States, agreed to undertake the perilous and 
romantic enterprise thus cautiously suggested and chivalrously 
portrayed. 

Amply equipped with every desirable appointment, including 
daguerreotype apparatuses, mathematical instruments, and withal 
fifty repeating rifles, lest it should become necessary to resort to 
an armed expedition, these gentleman sailed from New-Orleans 
and arrived at Balize, in the fall of 1S48. Here they procured 
horses, mules, and a party of ten experienced Indians and Mes- 
titzos; and after pursuing a route, through a wild, broken, and 
heavily wooded region, for about 150 miles, on the Gulf of Ama- 
tique, they struck off more to the south-west, for Coban, where 
they arrived on the morning of Christmas day, in time to 



partake of the substantial enjoyments, as well as to observe the 
peculiar religious ceremonies, of the great Catholic festival, in 
that intensely interior city. 

At this place, while loitering to procure information and guides 
for their further journey to Santa Cruz del Quiche, they got ac- 
quainted with Sr. Pedro Velasquez, of San Salvador, who de- 
scribes himself as a man of family and education, although a trader 
in indigo ; and his intermediate destination, prior to his return to 
the capital, happening also to be the same city, he kindly proffered 
to the two Americans his superior knowledge of the country, or any 
other useful service he could render them ; and he was accordingly 
very gladly received as their friend and companion on the vray. 
It is from a copy of a manuscript journal of this gentleman, that 
the translator has obtained the only information' as yet brought to 
the United States concerning the remarkable results of the ex- 
ploring expedition which he will proceed to describe, or of the fate 
of Messrs. Huertis and Hammond, its unfortunate originators and 
conductors, or of those extraordinary living specimens of a sui 
generis race of beings, hitherto supposed to be either fabulous or 
extinct, which are at once its melancholy trophies and its physio- 
logical attestors. And it is from Senor Velasquez alone that 
the public can receive any further intelligence upon this ardently 
interesting subject, beyond that which his manuscript imperfectly ' 
affords. 

In order, however, to avoid an anticipatory trespass upon the 
natural sequence of the narrative, it may be proper to state, 
that prior to his departure in their company from Coban, Senor 
Velanquez had received from his fellow travellers no intimation 
whatever concerning the ulterior object of their journey, and had 
neither seen nor heard of those volumes describing the stupendous 
vestiges of ancient empire, in his native land, which had so 
strongly excited the emulous passion of discovery in their minds. 
Frequently called by his mercantile speculations, which he 
seems to have conducted upon an extensive scale, to perform 
long journeys from San Salvador, on the Pacific side of the Cor- 
dilleras, to Comyagua in the mid-interior, and thence to Truxillo, 
Omoa, and Ysabal, on the Bay and Gulf of Honduras, he had 
traversed a large portion of the country, and had often been sur- 
prised with sudden views of mouldering temples, pyramids and 



cities, of vast magnitude and marvellous mythology. And being, as 
it evidently appears, a man of unusual intelligence and scholastic 
acquirements, he had doubtless felt, as he states, a profound but 
hopeless curiosity concerning their origin and history. He had 
even seen and consecutively examined the numerous and ornate 
monuments of Copan ; but it was not until he had proceeded to 
the second stage of the journey from Coban to Quiche, that 
he was shown the engravings in the first volume of Stevens' 
Central America, in which they are so faithfully depicted. He 
recognized many of them as old acquaintances, and still more as 
new ones, which had escaped his more cursory inspection ; and 
in all he could trace curious details which, on the spot, he re- 
gretted the want of time to examine. He, moreover, knew the 
surly Don Gregorio, by whom Mr. Stevens had been treated so 
inhospitably, and several other persons in the vicinity of the ruins 
whom he had named, and was delighted with the vraisemb lance 
of his descriptions. The Senor confesses that these circumstan- 
ces inspired him with unlimited confidence in that traveller's 
statements upon other subjects ; and when Mr. Huertis read to 
him the further account of the information given to Mr. Stevens 
by the jolly and merry, but intelligent old Padre of Quiche, re- 
specting other ruined cities beyond the Sierra Madre, and especi- 
ally of the living city of independant Candones, or unchris- 
tianized Indians, supposed to have been seen from the lofty- 
summit of that mountain range, and was told by Messrs. Huertis 
and Hammond that the exploration of this city was the chief ob- 
ject of their perilous expedition, the Senor adds, that his enthu- 
siasm became enkindled to at least as high a fervor as theirs, and 
that, " with more precipitancy than prudence, in a man of his 
maturer years and important business pursuits, he resolved to 
unite in the enterprise, to aid the heroic young men with his ex- 
perience in travel and knowledge of the wild Indians of the 
region referred to, and to see the end of the adventure, result as- 
it may." 

He was confirmed in this resolution by several concurring facts 
of which his companions were now told for the first time. He 
intimately knew and had several times been the guest of the 
worthy Cura of Quiche, from whom Mr. Stevens received assu- 
rances of the existence of the ruiaedi city of the ancient Aztecs, 



10 

as well as of the living city of the Candones, in the un subjugated 
territory beyond the mountains. And he was induced to yield 
credence to the Padre's confident report of the latter, because 
his account of the former had already been verified, and be- 
come a matter of fact and of record. He, Senor Velasquez, 
himself, during the preceding summer, joined a party of several 
foreigners and natives in exploring an ancient ruined city, of 
prodigious grandeur and extent, in the province of Vera Paz, 
but little more than 150 miles to the east of Guatamala, (in- 
stead of nearly 200, as the Padre had supposed,) which far sur- 
passed in magnificence every other ruin, as yet discovered, either 
in Central America or Mexico. It lay overgrown with huge 
timber, in the midst of a dense forest, far remote from any set- 
tlement, and near the crater of a long extinct volcano, on whose 
perpendicular M'alls,300 or 400 feet high, were aboriginal paint- 
ings of warlike and idolatrous processions, dances, and other 
ceremonies, exhibiting, like the architectural sculptures on the 
temples, a state of advancement in the arts incomparably supe- 
rior to all previous examples. And as the good Padre had 
proved veracious and accurate on this matter, which he knew 
from personal observation, the Senor would not uncharitably 
doubt his veracity on a subject in which he again professed to 
speak from the evidence of his own eye-sight. 

The party thus re-assured, and more exhilarated than ever 
with the prospect of success, proceeded on their journey with 
renewed vigor. Although the Senor modestly abstains from any 
allusion to the subject, in the MSS. which have reached us, it 
cannot be doubted that Messrs. Huertis and Hammond considered 
him an invaluable accession to their party. He was a guide on 
whom they could rely ; he was acquainted with the dialects of 
many of the Indian tribes through which they would have to 
pass ; was familiar with the principal stages and villages on their 
route, and knew both the places and persons from whence the 
best information, if any, concerning the paramount object of their 
journey, could be obtained. 

It appears also, from an incidental remark in his journal, that 
Senor Velasquez would have been at their right hand in a fight, 
in the event of any hostile obstruction on their way. As a vol- 
unteer, he had held a command under Morazan, during the 



11 

sanguinary conflicts of the republic, and had been a soldier 
through several of the most arduous campaigns, in the fierce 
struggle between that general and Carrera. He was thus, appa- 
rently, in all respects, precisely such an auxiliary as they would 
have besought Providence to afford them, to accomplish the 
hazardous enterprise they had so daringly projected and com- 
menced. 

Unfortunately for the public, the Senor's journal, fragmentary 
throughout, is especially meagre concerning the incidents of 
travel betw^een the capital of Vera Paz and Santa Cruz del 
Quiche. At this period, he appears to have left the task of re- 
cording them almost entirely to his two friends, whose mem- 
oranda, in all probability, are forever lost. Some of those inci- 
dents appear, even from his brief minutes of them, to have been 
of the most imminent and critical importance. Thus under the 
date of February 2nd, 1849, he says, " on the bank of a 
branch of the Salamo, attacked in the night by about thirty In- 
dian robbers, several of whom had fire-arms. Sr. Hammond, 
sitting within the light of the fire, was severely wounded through 
the left shoulder ; they had followed us from the hacienda, six 
leagues, passed us to the nor h and lay in ambush ; killed four, 
wounded three ; of the rest saw no more ; poor Juan, shot 
through the body, died this morning ; lost two mules." 

After this, there is nothing written until the 16th, when they 
had arrived at a place called San Jose, where he says, " Good 
beef and fowls ; Sr. Huertis much better ; Sr. Hammond very 
low in intermittent fever ; fresh mules and good ones." Next 
on the 5th of March, at the Indian village of Axitzel, is written, 
"Detained here five days ; Hammond, strong and headstrong. 
Agree with Huertis that, to be safe, we must await with patience 
the return of the good Cura." Slight and tantalizing memoranda 
of this kind occur, irregularly, until April 3d, when we find the 
party safely arrived at Quiche, and comfortably accommodated 
in a convent. The jovial Padre, already often mentioned, who 
may be regarded as the unconscious father of the expedition, had 
become helplessly, if not hopelessly, dropsical, and had lost much 
of his wonted jocosity. He declared, however, that Senor 
Velasquez's description of the ruins explored the previous sum- 
mer, recalling as it did his own profoundly impressed recoUec- 
■ tion of them, when he walked through their desolate avenues 



12 

and deserted palaces ; and corroborating as it did, in every par- 
ticular, his own reiterated account of them, which he had often 
bestowed upon incredulous and unworthy ears, would "act like 
cannabis upon his bladder," as it already had upon his eyes ; and 
if he could but live to see the description in print, so as to silence 
all gainsayers, he had no doubt it would completely cure him, and 
add many years to his life. He persisted in his story of the un- 
known city in the Candone wilderness, as seen by himself, nearly 
forty years ago, from the summit of the sierra ; and promised the 
travellers a letter to his friend, the Cura of Gueguetenango, re- 
questing him to procure them a guide to the very spot from 
whence they could behold it for themselves. 

This promise, in the course of a few days, the Senor says, he 
faithfully performed, describing from recollection, by the hand 
of an amanuensis to whom he dictated, not only the more stri- 
king but even minute and peculiar landmarks for the guidance 
of the guide. On the 10th of April, the party, fully recruited 
in health and energy, set out for Totouicapan ; and thence we 
trace them by the journal through a succession of small places 
to Quezaltenango, where they remained but two days ; and 
thence through the places called Aguas Calientes, and San Se- 
bastiano, to Gueguetenango ; this portion of their route being 
described as one of unprecedented toil, danger, and exhaustion, 
from its mountainous character, accidents to men and mules, ter- 
rific weather, and loss of provisions. Arrived, however, at length, 
at the town last named, which they justly regarded as an emi- 
nently critical stage of their destiny, they found the Cura, and 
presented him with the letter of introduction from his friendj the 
Padre of Quiche. They were somewhat discouraged on per- 
ceiving that the Cura indicated but little confidence in the accu- 
racy of his old friend's memory, and asked them rather abruptly, 
if they thought him really serious in his belief in his distant 
vision of an unknown city from the sierra, because, for his own 
part, he had always regarded the story as one of Padre's broad- 
est jokes, and especially since he had never heard of any other 
person possessing equal visual powers. "The mountain was 
high, it is true, but not much more than half as high as the hy- 
perbolous memory of his reverend friend had made it, and he 
much feared that the Padre, in the course of forty years, had so 
frequently repeated a picture of his early imagination as to havej 



13 

at length, cherished it as a reality." This wassaid in smooth and 
elegant Spanish, but, says the Senor, " with an air of dignified 
sarcasm upon our own credulity, which was far from being agree- 
able to men broken down and dispirited by almost incredible toil 
in pursuit of an object thus loftily pronounced a rediculous 
phantom of the brain." This part of Senor Valesquez' journal 
being interesting and carefully written, we give the following 
translation without abrido-ement : — 

" The Cura, nevertheless, on finding that his supercilious 
scepticism had not proved so infectious among us as he expected, 
and that we were rather vexed than vacillating, ofiered to procure 
us guides, in the course of a day or two, who were familiar with 
many parts of the sierra, and who, for good pay, he doubted not, 
would flatter our expectations to the utmost extent we could de- 
sire. He advised us, however, in the same style of caustic dis- 
suasion, to take with us both a barometer and a telescope, if we 
were provided with those instruments, because the latter, espec- 
ially, might be found useful in discovering the unknown city, and 
the former would not only inform us of the height of the moun- 
tain, but of the weather in prospect most favorable to a distant 
view. Senor Huertis replied, that such precautions would be 
adopted, as a matter of course, and we would, moreover, furnish 
h m, on our return to Gueguetenango, with the exact latitude and 
longitude of the spot from which the discovery might be made. 
He laughed very heartily, and rejoined that he thought this oper- 
ation would be much easier than to furnish the same interesting 
particulars concerning the location of the spots at which the 
discovery might fail to be made; and saying this he robed himself 
for mass, which we all, rather sullenly, attended. 

" Next morning, two good looking Meztitzos, brothers, waited 
on us with a strong letter of recommendation from the Cura, as 
guides to that region of the sierra which the Padre's letter had 
so particularly described, and which description, the Cura added, 
he had taken much pains to make them understand. On being 
questioned concerning it, they startled and somewhat disconcer- 
ted us by calm assurances, in very fair Spanish, that they were 
not only familiar with all the land-marks, great and small, which 
the Cura had read to them, but had several times seen the very 
city of which we were in search^ although none but full- 
blooded Indians had ever ventured on a journey to it. This was 
rather too much, even for us, sanguine and confiding as we were. 
We shared a common suspicion that the Cura had changed his 
tactics, and resolved to play a practical joke upon our credulity — 
to send us on a fool's errand and laugh at us for our pains. That 
he had been tampering with the two guides for this purpose, 
struck us forcibly ; for while he professed never to have known 
any man who had seen the distant city, he recommended these 



14 

Meztitzos, as brothers, whom he had known from their Tboyhood, 
they declared they had beheld it from the sierra on various occa- 
sions. Nevertheless, Senor Huertis believed that the young men 
spoke the truth, while the Cura, probably, did not; and hoping 
to catch him in his own snare, if such had been laid, asked the 
guides their terms, which, though high, he agreed to at once, 
without cavil. They said it would take us eight days to reach the 
part of the sierra described in the letter, and that we might 
have to wait on the summit several days more, before the weather 
would afford a clear view. They would be ready in two days ; 
they had just returned across the mountains from San Antonio 
de Guista, and needed rest and repairs. There was a frankness 
and simplicity about these fine fellows which would bear the 
severest scrutiny, and we could only admit the bare possibility of 
our being mistaken. 

'' It took us_three days, however, to procure a full supply of 
the proper kind of provisions for a fortnight's abode in the sky, 
and on the fourth' (May 5th,) we paid our formal respects to 
the Cura, and started for the ascent — he not forgetting to re- 
mind us of the promise to report to him the precise geographi- 
cal locality of our discovery." 

The journal is again blank until May 9th, when the writer 
says, " Our altitude, by barometer, this morning, is over 6000 
feet above the valley which we crossed three days ago ; the view 
of it and its surrounding mountains, sublime with chasms, j'et 
grotesque in outline, and all heavily gilded with the setting sun, 
is one of the most oppressively gorgeous I ever beheld. The 
guides inform us that we have but 3000 feet more to ascend, 
and point to the gigantic pinnacle before us, at the apparent dis- 
tance of seven or eight leagues ; but that, before we can reach 
it, we have to descend and ascend an immense barranca, (rav- 
ine) nearly a thousand feet deep from our present level, and of 
so difficult a passage that it will cost us several days. The side 
of the mountain, toward the north west, is perfectly flat and per- 
pendicular for more than half its entire height, as if the pro- 
digious section had been riven down by the sword of San 
Miguel, and hurled by his foot among the struggling multitude 
of summits below. So far, the old Padre is accurate in every 
particular." In a note opposite this extract, written perpendicu- 
larly on the margin of the manuscript, the writer says, " The 
average breadth of the plain on this ridge of the sierra (that is 
the ridge on which they were then encamped for the night,) is 
nearly half a mile, and exhibits before us a fine rolling tract as 
far as we can see. Neither birds, beasts, nor insects, — 1 would 



15 

there were no such barranca ! " On the tenth he says, " on the 
brink of the abyss — the heaviest crags we can hurl down, re- 
turn no sound from the bottom." 

The next entry in the journal is dated May the 15th. — '' Re- 
covered the body of Sebastiano and the load of his mule ; his 
brother is building a cross for his grave, and will not leave it 
until famished with thirst and hunger. All too exhausted to think 
of leaving this our first encampment since we descended. Present 
elevation but little above that of the opposite ridge which we left 
on the nth, still, at least 3000 feet to climb." On the 19th, 
4 o'clock P. M., he records, " Myself, Sr. Hammond and Anto- 
nio, on the highest summit, an inclined plain of bare rock, of 
about fifteen acres. The Padre again right. Sr. Huertis and 
others just diseernable, but bravely coming on. Elevation, 9,500 
feet. Completely in the clouds, and all the country below invisi- 
ble. Senor Hammond already bleeding at the nose, and no 
cigar to stop it." At 10 o'clock, the same night, he writes? 
''All comfortably asleep but myself and Sr. Hammond, who is 
going to take the latitude." Then follows, " He finds the lati- 
tude 15 degrees and 48 minutes north.'''' Opposite this, in the 
margin, is written, " The mean result of three observations of 
different stars. Intend to take the longitude to-morrow." Next 
day, the 20th, he says, " A bright and most auspicious morning, 
and all, but poor Antonio, in fine health and feeling. The wind, 
by compass, N. E., and rolling away a billowy ocean of mist» 
toward, I suppose, the Bay of Honduras. Antonio says the 
Pacific will be visible within an hour; (present time not given) 
more and more of the lower mountains becoming clear every mo- 
ment. Fancy we already see the Pacific, a faint yellow plain, 
almost as elevated as ourselves. Can see part of the State of 
Chiapas pretty distinctly." At 12 o'clock, meridian, he says, 
" Sr. Hammond is taking the longitude, but finds a difference of 
several minutes between his excellent watch and chronometer, 
and fears the latter has been shaken. Both the watch and its 
owner, however, have been a great deal more shaken, for the 
chronometer has been all the time in the midst of a thick blank- 
et, and has had no falls. S. Huertis, with the glass, sees whole 
lines and groups of pyramids, in Chiapas. At 1 o'clock, P.M. he 
records, " Sr. Hammond reports the longitude, 92 degrees 15 



16 

minutes West. Brave Huertis is in ecstacy with some discov- 
ery, but will not part with the glass for a moment. No doubt it 
is the Padre's city, for it is precisely in the direction he indicat- 
ed. Antonio says he can see it with his naked eye, although less 
distinctly than heretofore. I can only see a white straight line, 
like a ledge of limestone rock, on an elevated plain, at least 
twenty leagues distant, in the midst of a vast amphitheatre of 
hills, to the north east of our position, toward the State of 
Yucatan. Still, it is no doubt the place the Padre saw, and it 
may be a great city." 

At 2 o'clock P.M. he says, " All doubt is at an end ! We have 
all seen it through the glass, as distinctly as though it were but 
a few leagues off, and it is now clear and bright to the unaided 
eye. It is unquestionably a richly monumented city, of vast di- 
mensions, within lofty parapetted walls, three or four miles 
square, inclined inward in the Egyptian style, and its interior 
domes and turrets have an emphatically oriental aspect. I should 
judge it to be not more than twenty-five leagues' from Ocosingo, 
to the eastward, and nearly in the same latitude ; and this would 
probably be the best point from which to reach it, travelling due 
east, although the course of the river Legartos seems to lead di- 
rectly to it. That it is still an inhabited place, is evident from 
the domes of its temples, or churches. Christian churches they 
cannot be, for such a city would have an archbishop and be well 
known to the civilized world. It must be a Pagan strong-hold 
that escaped the conquest by its remote position, and the general 
retreat, retirement, and centralizing seclusion of its surrounding 
population. It may now be opened to the light of the true 
faith." 

They commenced their descent the same day, and rested at 
night on the place of their previous encampment, a narrow shelf 
of the sierra. Here, on the brink of the terrible ravine, which 
they had again to encounter, they consulted upon' a plan for their 
future operations ; and it was finally agreed that Messrs Huertis 
and Hammond, with Antonio, and such of the Indian muleteers 
as could be induced to proceed with the expedition, should fol- 
low the bottom of the ravine, in its north-east course, in which, 
according to Antonio, the river Legartos took its principal sup- 
ply of water, and remain at a large village, adjacent to its banks, 



17 

whicli they had seen, about five leagues distant ; while Senor 
Velasquez was to retrace their late route, by way of Gueguete- 
nango, to Guezaltenango, where all the surplus arms and amuni- 
tion had been deposited, and recruit a strong party of Indians, to 
serve as a guard, in the event of an attack from the people of 
the unexplored region, whither they were resolutely bound. In 
the meantime, Antonio was to return home to Gueguetenango, 
await the return of Velasquez, with his armed party, from Gue- 
zaltenango, and conduct them over the mountains to the village 
on the plains, where Messrs. Huertis and Hammond were to re- 
main until they should arrive. It appears that Senor Velasquez 
was abundantly supplied with solid funds for the recruiting ser- 
vice, and that Mr. Huertis also furnished Antonio with a liberal 
sum, in addit'on to his stipulated pay, wherewith to procure 
masses for the repose of his unfortunate brother. 

Of the adventures of Messrs. Huertis and Hammond, in the 
long interval prior to the return of Velasquez, we have no ac- 
count whatever ; nor does the journal of the latter contain any 
remarks relative to his own operations, during the same period. 
The next date is July the 8th, when we find him safely arrived 
with " nearly all the men he had engaged," at an Indian village 
called Aguamasinta, where his anxious companions were over- 
joyed to receive him, and where " they had obtained inestimable 
Information, regarding the proper arrangement of the final pur- 
pose." After this we trace them, by brief memoranda, for a 
few days, on the devious course of the Legartos, when the jour- 
nal abruptly and finally closes. The remaining narrative of the 
expedition was written by Senor Velasquez from memory, after 
his return to San Salvador, while all the exciting events and 
scenes which it describes were vividly sustained by the feelings 
which they originally inspired. As this excessively interesting 
document will be translated for the public press as soon as the 
necessary consent of its present proprietor can be obtained, the 
writer of this pamphlet the less regrets the very limited use of 
it to which he is now restricted — which is but little more than 
that of making a mere abridgement and connexion of such inci_ 
dents as may serve to explain the origin and possession of those 
sui generis specimens of humanity, the Aztec brother and sister, 
now exhibiting to the public, in the United States. From the 



18 

introductory paragraphs, we take the liberty to quote the follow- 
ing, without abridgement : — 

" Our latitude and longitude was now 16° 42' N. and 91° 35' 
W ; so that the grand amphitheatre of hills, forming" three- 
fourths of an oval outline of jagged summits, a few leagues be- 
fore us, most probably inclosed the mysterious object of our 
anxious and uncertain labors. The small groups of Indians 
through which we had passed, in the course of the day, had evi- 
dently been startled by sheer astonishment, into a sort of passive 
and involuntary hospitality, but maintained a stark apprehensive 
reserve in most of their answers to our questions. They spoke 
a peculiar dialect of the Maya, which I had never heard before, 
and had great difficulty in comprehending, although several of the 
Mayua Indians of our party understood it familiarily and spoke it 
fluently. From them we learned that they had never seen men 
of our race before, but that a man of the same race as Senor 
Hammond, who was of a bright-florid complexion, with light 
hair and red whiskers, had been sacrificed and eaten by the 
Macbenachs, or priests of Iximaya, the great city among the 
hills, about thirty moons ago. Our interpreters stated that the 
word " Iximaya" meant the " Great Centre," and that " Mac- 
benach" meant " a Great Son of the Sun." I at once resolved 
to make the most of my time in learning as much as possible of 
this dialect from these men, because they said it was the tongue 
spoken by the people of Iximaya and the surrounding region. It 
appeared to me to be merely a provincial corruption, or local pe- 
culiarism, of the great body of the Maya language, with which 
I was already acquainted ; and, in the course of the next day's 
conversation, I found that I could acquire it with much facility." 

To this circumstance the writer is probably indebted for his 
life. In another day, the determined explorers had come within 
the circuit of the alpine district in which Iximaya is situated, and 
found it reposing, in massive grandeur, in the centre of a per- 
fectly level plain, about five leagues in diameter, at a distance of 
scarcely two from the spot they had reached. At the base of all 
the mountains, rising upon their sides, and extending nearly a 
mile inward upon the plain, was a dark green forest of colossal 
trees and florid shrubbery, girding it around ; while the even 
valley itself exhibited large tracts of cultivated fields, fenced in 
with palisades, and regular, even to monotony, both in size' and 
form. " Large herds of deer, cattle, and horses were seen in 
the openings of the forest, and dispersed over the plain, which 
was also studded with low flat-roofed dwellings of stone, in small 
detached clusters, or hamlets. Rich patches of forest, of irreg- 
ular forms, bordered with gigantic aloes, diversified the landscape 



19 

in effective contrast with bright lakes of water which glowed 
among them." 

While the whole party, with their cavalcade of mules and bag- 
gage, were gazing upon this scene, two horsemen, in bright blue 
and yellow tunics, and wearing turbans decorated with three large 
plumes of the quezal, dashed by them from the forest, at the 
distance of about two hundred yards, on steeds of the highest 
Spanish mould, followed by a long retinue of athletic Indians, 
equally well mounted, clothed in brilliant red tunics, with coron- 
als of gay feathers, closely arranged within a band of blue cloth. 
Each horseman carried a long spear, pointed with a polished 
metal ; and each held, in a leash, a brace of powerful blood- 
hounds, which were also of the purest Spanish breed. The two 
leaders of this troop, who were Indians of commanding air and 
stature, suddenly wheeled their horses and glared upon "the large 
party of intruders with fixed amazement. Their followers 
evinced equal surprise, but forgot not to draw up in good military 
array, while the blood-hounds leapt and raged in their thongs. 
^ " While the leaders," says Senor Velasquez, "seemed to be 
intently scrutinizing every individual of our company, as if 
silently debating the policy of an immediate attack, one of the 
Maya Indians, of whom I had been learning the dialect, stepped 
forward and informed us that they were a detachment of rural 
guards, a very numerous military force, which had been appointed 
from time immemorial, or, at least, from the time of the Spanish 
invasion, to hunt down and capture all strangers of a foreign race 
that should be found within a circle of twelve leagues of the city ; 
and he repeated the statement made to us from the beginning, that 
no white man had hitherto eluded their vigilance or left their city 
ahve. He said there was a tradition that many of the pioneers 
of Alvarado's army had been cut off in this manner, and never 
heard of more, while their skulls and weapons are to this day ' 
suspended round the altars of the pagan gods. He added, 
finally, that if we wished to escape the same fate, now was our 
only chance ; that as we numbered thirty-five, all armed with 
repeating rifles, we could easily destroy the present detachment, 
which amounted to but fifty, and se<;ure our retreat before 
another could come up ; but that, in order to do this, it was nec- 
essary first to shoot the dogs, which all cur Indians regarded with 
the utmost dread and horror. 

"I instantly felt the force of this advice, in which also I was 
sustained by Senor Hammond ; but Senor Huertis, whom, as 
the leader of the expedition, we were all bound and solemnly 
pledged to obey, utterly rejected the proposition. He had come 
so far to see the city and see it he would, whether taken thither 



20 

as a captive or not, and whether he ever returned from it or not ; 
that tius was the contract originally proposed, and to which I 
had assented ; that the fine troop before us was evidently not a 
gang of savages, but a body of civilized men and good soldiers ; 
and as to the dogs, they were noble animals of the highest blood 
he ever saw. If, however, I and his friend Hammond, who 
seemed afraid of being eaten, in preference to the fine beef and 
venison which we had seen in such profusion on the plain, really 
felt alarmed at the bugbear legends of our vagabond Indians, be- 
fore any demonstration of hostility had been made, we wore 
welcome to take two-thirds of the men and mules and make our 
retreat as best we could, while he would advance with Antonio 
and the remainder of the party, to the gales of the city, and de- 
mand a peaceable admission. I could not but admire the ro- 
mantic intrepidity of this resolve, though I doubted its discre- 
tion ; and assured him I was ready to follow his example and 
share his fate. 

" While this conversation was passing among us, the Indian 
commanders held a conference apparently as grave and import- 
ant. But just as Senor Huertis and myself had agreed to ad- 
vance toward them for a parley, they separated without deigning 
a reply to our salutation — the elder and more highly decorated, 
galloping off toward the city with a small escort, while the other 
briskly crossed our front at the head of his squadron and entered 
the forest nearer the entrance of the valley. This opening in 
the hills was scarcely a quarter of a mile wide, and but a few 
minutes elapsed before we saw a single horseman cross it toward 
the wood on the opposide side. Presently, another troop of 
horse of the same uniform appearance as the first, were seen 
passing a glade of the vvood which the single horseman had 
penetrated, and it thus became evident that a manoeuvre had al- 
ready been effected to cut off our retreat. The mountains sur- 
rounding the whole area of the plain, were absolutely perpen- 
dicular for three-fourths of their altitude, which was nowhere 
less than a thousand feet ; and from many parts of their wildly 
piled outline, huge crags projected in monstrous mammoth forms, 
as if to plunge to the billows of forest beneath. At no point of 
this vast impassable boundary was there a chasm or declivity 
discernable, by which we could make our exit, except the one 
thus formidably intercepted. 

"To retire into the forest and water our mules at a copious stream 
which rushed forth from its recesses, and recruit our own ex- 
hausted strength with food and rest, was our first necessary re- 
source. In tracing the rocky course of the current for a con- 
venient watering place, Antonio discovered that it issued from a 
cavern, which, though a mere fissure exteriorly, was, "within, of 
cathedral dimensions and solemnity ; we all entered it and drank 
eagerly from a foaming basin, which it immediately presented to 
our fevered lips. Our first sensations were those of freedom and 



21 

independence, and of that perfect security which is the basis of 
both. It was long since we had slept under a roof of any kind, 
while here a few men could defend our repose against an assault 
from thousands ; but it was horribly evident, to my mind, that a 
few watchful assailants would suffice to reduce us to starvation, 
or destroy us in detail. Our security was that of a prison, and 
our freedom was limited to its w^alls. Happily, however, for 
the present hour, this reflection seemed to trouble no one. Ob- 
jects of wonder and veneration grew numerous to our gaze. Gi- 
gantic statues of ancient warriors, with round shields, arched 
helmets, and square breast-plates, curiously latticed and adorned, 
stood sculptured in high relief, with grave faces and massive 
limbs, and in the regular order of columns around the walls of 
this grand mausoleum. Many of them stood arrayed in the crim- 
son of the setting sun, which then flamed through the tall fissure 
into the cavern ; and the deep gloom into which long rows of others 
utterly retired from our view, presented a scene at once of min- 
gled mystery and splendor. It was evidently a place of great 
and recent resort, both for men and horses, for plentiful supplies 
of fresh fodder for the latter were heaped in stone recesses ; while 
the ashes of numerous fires, mingled with discarded mocassins 
and broken pipes and pottery, attested a domiciliary occupation 
by the former. Farther into the interior, were found seats and 
sleeping-couches of fine cane work ; and in a spacious recess, near 
the entrance, a large collection of the bones, both of the ox and 
the deer, with hides, also, of both, but newly flayed and sus- 
pended on pegs by the horns. These last evidences of good living 
had more efi'ect upon our hungry Indians than all the rest, and 
within an hour after dark, while we were seeking our first sleep, 
four fine deer were brought in by about a dozen of our party, 
whom we supposed to have been faithfully guarding our citadel. 
It is unnecessary to say that we gladly arose to the rich repast 
that ensued, for we had eaten nothing but our scant allowance of 
tortillas for many days, and were in the lassitude of famine." 

Tempting as such extracts are, we must avoid them, and 
hasten through a summary of subsequent events. There is one 
singular incident, however, mentioned in the passage immediately 
following the above, possessing too important a connexion with, 
the final catastrophe to be pretermitted at this place. Mr. Ham- 
mond, the Canadian engineer, fearing that the peculiarity of 
his appearance, as a man of fair and ruddy complexion, among a 
swarthy race, would subject him to great annoyance, and perhaps 
involve him in the horrible fate of a sirnilar person, reported by 
the Indians, resolved to stain his skin of a darker hue, by means 
of some chemical preparation which he had precautionarily pro- 
vided for this purpose, before he left the United States. With, 



22 

the friendly assistance of Antonio, this metamorphosis was com- 
pleted over his whole person before he retired to rest ; his red 
whiskers were shaved off, and his light hair died of a jet black ; 
and so perfect was the disguise, that not one of the party who 
went foraging for venison recognized him on their return, but 
marvelled, as he sat at supper, whence so singular a stranger could 
have come. Velasquez states, however, that his new complexion 
was unlike that of any human being on the face of the earth, and 
scarcely diminished the certainty of his becoming an object of 
curiosity, among an Indian population. 

In the morning, about the break of day, the infernal yells of a 
pack of blood-hounds suddenly rang through the cavern, and the 
party could scarcely seize their rifles before many of the dogs, 
who had driven in the affrighted Indians on guard, were spring- 
ing at their throats. Mr. Huertis, however, the American 
leader of the expedition, with that presence of mind which seems 
always to have distinguished him, told the men that rifles were 
useless in such a contest, and that the hounds must be dispatched 
with their long knives as fast as they came in, while the fire-arms 
were to be reserved for then- masters. This canine butchery was 
accomplished with but little diflSculty ; none of the party 
received any serious injury from their fangs ; and the Indians 
were exhilarated with a victory which was chiefly a conquest of 
their fears. These unfortunate dogs, it appears, were the ad- 
vanced van of a pack, or perhaps merely a few unleashed as scouts 
to others held in reserve ; for no more were seen or heard for 
sometime. Meanwhile, Mr. Huertis seems to have struck out a 
brilliant scheme. He collected his whole party into that obscure 
branch of the cavern, near its entrance, which has been described 
as a depository of animal bones, and ordering them to sling their 
rifles at their backs, bade them stand ready with their knives. 
Almost instantly, they observed a party of ten dismounted na- 
tives, in scarlet tunics, and armed with spears, enter the cavern 
in single file ; and, it would seem, from seeing the dogs slain and 
no enemy in sight, they rushed out again, without venturing on 
farther search. In a few minutes, however, they returned with 
forty or fifty more, in th5 same uniform, headed by the younger 
of the two personages whom they had seen in command the pre- 
vious evening. As soon as they were well advanced into the 



23 



cavern, and heard disturbing the tired mules, Mr. Huertis 
and his party marched quietly out and seized their horses, which 
were picketed close by, in charge of two or three men, whom 
they disarmed. At a short distance, however, drawn up in good 
.order, was another squadron of horses, which Mr. Huertis deter- 
mined instantly to charge. Ordering his whole party to mount 
the noble stallions they had captured, and reserve their fire until 
he gave the word, he, Velasquez, and Hammond, drew the short 
sabres they had worn on their march, and led the attack. The 
uninformed natives, however, did not wait the encounter, but 
scattered in wonderm.ent and consternation ; doubtless under the 
impression that all their comrades had been slain. But the rapid 
approach of a much larger force — which is found, eventually, to 
have consisted of two detachments of fifty each, being just twice 
their number — speedily reassured them, and falling in line with 
this powerful reinforcement, the whole hundred and fifty charged 
upon our comparative handful of travellers, at a rapid pace. 
Huertis promptly ordered his little party to halt, and form in 
line, two deep, with presented arms; and doubtless feeling that, 
notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, the enemy, armed only 
with spears and small side-hatchets, held but a slender chance of 
victory over a party of thirty-eight — most of them old campaign- 
ers in the sanguinary expeditions of the terrible Carrera — armed 
with new " six-shooting " rifles and long knives, generously com- 
manded them to keep aim upon the horses only, until further 
orders. In the meantime, most of their plumed opponents, in- 
stead of using their long spears as in lance practice, threw them 
through the air from so great a distance that nearly all fell short 
of the mark — an infallible indication both of timidity and inex- 
perience in action. The unfortunate Mr. Hammond, however, 
was pierced through the right breast, and another of the party 
was killed by being transfixed through the bowels. At this instant 
Huertis gave the word to fire ; and, at the next, no small number 
of the enemy were rolling upon the sod, amid their plunging 
horses. A second rapid, but vrell delivered volley, brought down 
as many more, when the rest, in attitudes of frantic vs^onder and 
terror, unconsciously dropped their vpeapons and fled like affright- 
ed fowls under the sudden swoop of the kite. Their dispersion 
was so outrageously wild and complete that no two of them 
could be seen together as they radiated over the plain. The 



24 



men and horses seemed impelled alike by a preternatural panic ; 
and neither Cortez in Mexico, nor Pizarro in Peru, ever wit- 
nessed greater consternation at fire-arms among a people, who, 
for the first time, beheld their phenomena and effects — when 
mere hundreds of invaders easily subjugated millions of natives 
chiefly by this appalling influence — than was manifested by these 
Iximayans on this occasion. Indeed, it appears that these prim- 
itive and isolated people, holding no intercourse whatever with 
the rest of mankind, were as ignorant as their ancestors even of 
the existence of this kind of weapons ; and although their 
modern hieroglyphic al annals were found to contain vague allu- 
sions to the use of them in the conquest of the surrounding 
country, by means of a peculiar kind of thunder and lightning, 
and several old Spanish muskets and pistols were found in their 
scant collection of foreign curiosities, yet, not even the most 
learned of their priests had retained the slightest notion of the 
uses for which they were designed. 

While this summary conflict was enacted on the open lawn of 
the forest, the dismounted company in the cavern having com- 
pleted their fruitless search for the fugitives, emerged from its 
portal with all the mules and baggage, just in time to see and 
hear the fiery explosions of the rifles and their effect upon the 
whole body of scarlet cavalry. The entire scene, including the 
mounted possession of their horses by uncouthly attu-ed strangers 
previously invisible, must have appeared to these terror-stricken 
natives an achievement of supernatural beings. And when Mr. 
Huertis wheeled his obstreperously laughing party to recover his 
mules, he found most of the astounded men prostrated upon their 
faces, while others, more self-possessed, knelt upon the bended 
knee, and, with drooping heads, crossed their hands behind them 
to receive the bonds of captives. Their gallant and gaily ac- 
coutred young chieftain, however, though equally astonished and 
dismayed, merely surrendered his javelin as an officer would his 
sword, under the like circumstances, in civilized warfare. But, 
with admirable tact and forethought, Huertis declined to accept 
it, immediately returning it with the most profound and deffer- 
ential cordiality of manner. He at the same time informed 
him, thBough Velasquez, that, though strangers, his party were 
not enemies but friendly visitors, who, after a long and painful 



25 



journey, again to be pursued, desired the temporary kospitality of 
his countrymen in their magnificent city. 

The young chief replied, with evident discomposure and con- 
cern, that his countrymen showed no hospitality to strangers, it 
bein^ interdicted by their laws and punishable with death ; that 
the inhabitants of their city held intercourse only with the pop- 
ulation of the surrounding valley, who were restricted alike by 
law and by patriotism from ever leaving its confines ; he and his 
fellow soldiers alone being privileged to visit the neighboring re- 
gions for the purpose of arresting intruders, (cowana) and escort- 
ing certain kind of merchandize which they exchanged with a 
people of their own race in an adjoining district. He added, 
with much eloquence of manner, and as Velasquez believed, ot 
language, which he but partially understood, that the independ- 
ence and peace of his nation, who were a peaceful and happy 
people, depended upon these severe restrictions, which indeed 
had been the only means of preserving it, while all the country 
besides, from sea to sea, had bowed to a foreign yoke, and seen 
their ancient cities, once the seats and centres of mighty empires, 
overgrown with forest, and the temples of their god.s demolished. 
He further added, says Velasquez, in a very subdued but sig- 
nificant tone, that some few strangers, it was true, had been 
taken to the city by its guards in the course of many generations, 
but that none of them had been allowed an opportunity of be- 
trayino- its existence and .locality to the cruel rapacity of the 
foreign race. He concluded by earnestly entreating them, since 
he could not compel them as prisoners, to enter the city as 
friends, with the view of residing there for life; promising them 
wives, and dwellings, and honors; for even ^now, if they at- 
tempted to retreat, they would be overtaken by thousands of 
armed men on fleet horses, that would overpower them by their 
numbers and subject them to a very difierent fate. 

Mr. Huertis rejoined, through the same interpreter, that he 
could destroy any number of armed men, on the swiftest horses, 
before they could approach him, as the chief had already seen ; 
and since he could enforce his exit from the city whenever he 
thought proper, he would enter it upon his own terms, either as 
a conqueror, or as a friend, according to the reception he met 
with ; that there was now no race of conquerors to whom the city 



26 

could be betrayed, even if lie were disposed to do so, as the peo- 
ple of the whole country, of all races, were now living in a state 
of perfect freedom and equality ; and that, therefore, there was 
no necessity for those unsocial and sanguinary laws which se- 
cluded the Iximayans from friendly intercourse with their fellovr- 
men. Saying which, and without waiting for further colloquy, 
he ordered his party to dismount, restore the horses to their 
owners, and march with the train of mules toward the city, in 
the usual style of travel. With this order, his Indians complied 
very reluctantly, but on assuring them that it was a matter of the 
highest policy, they evinced their wonted confidence in his judg- 
ment and ability. To the young chief he restored his own richly 
caparisoned steed, which had fallen to the lot of the unfortunate 
Mr. Hammond, who was now lying desperately wounded, in the 
care of the faithful Antonio. For himself and Senor Velasquez, 
Mr. Huertis retained the horses they had first seized, and placing 
themselves on each side of the Iximayan commander, with their 
friend Hammond borne immediately behind them, in one of the 
cane couches of the cavern, on the backs of two mules yoked to- 
gether, they advanced to the head of their party, while the red 
troopers, followed by the surviving bloodhounds leashed in couples, 
brought up the rear. Huertis, however, had taken the precaution 
to add the spears and hatchets of these men to the burdens of 
the forward mules, to abide the event of his reception at the city 
gates. The appearance of the whole cavalcade must have been 
unique and picturesque ; for Velasquez informs us, that while he 
wore the uniform of a military company to which he belonged in 
San Salvador, much enhanced in effect by some brilliant additions, 
and crowned with a broad sombrero and plume, Huertis wore 
that of an American naval commander, with gold epaulettes ; 
his riflemen and muleteers generally were clothed in blue cotton 
and grass hats, while the native cavalry, in the brilliant tunics and 
feathered coronals, already described, must have completed the 
diversity of the variegated cortege. Had poor Hammond been 
mounted among them, his costume would have been as equivocal 
as his new complexion, for he had attired himself in the scarlet 
coat of a British officer of rank, with several blazing stars of 
glass jewels, surmounted by a white Panama hat, in which clus- 
tered an airy profusion of ladies ostrich feathers, dyed blue ai 
the edges. 



27 

In passing the spot of the recent skirmish, they found that 
nine horses and two men had been killed, the latter unintention- 
ally, besides the rifleman of their own party. Many other horses 
were lying wounded, in the struggles of death, and several of 
their riders were seated on the ground, disabled by bruises or 
dislocations. Huertis' men buried their comrade in a grave 
hastily dug with the spears which lay around him, while the 
Iximayans laid their dead and wounded upon horses, to be con- 
veyed to a village on the plain. The former, it was found, were 
consumed there the next day, in funereal fires, with idolatrous 
rites ; and it was observed by the travellers that the native soldiers 
regarded their dead with emotions of extreme sensibiUty, and 
almost feminine grief, like men wholly unaccustomed to scenes of 
violent death. But Velasquez remarks, that the strongest emo- 
tion evinced by the young chief, throughout their intercourse, 
was when he heard the word " Iximaya," in interpreting for 
Huertis. He then seemed io be smitten and subdued, by blank 
despair, as if he felt that the city and its location were already 
familiarly known to the foreign world. 

As already intimated, the distance to the city was about six 
miles. The expedition found the road to it bordered, on either 
side, as far as the eye could reach, with a profuse and valuable 
vegetation, the result of evidently assiduous and skilful culture. 
Indigo, corn, oats, a curious five-eared wheat, gourds, pine-apples, 
esculent roots, pulse, flax and hemp, the white as well as the 
crimson cotton, vineyards, and fruit orchards, grew luxuriantly 
in large, regularly divided fields, which were now ripe for the 
harvest. The villages, large and populous, were mostly com- 
posed of flat-roofed dwellings with broad overhanging eaves or 
architraves, supported by heavy columns, often filleted over 
spiral flutings, in the Egyptian style, and generally terminating 
in foliaged capitals, of the same character. None of the houses 
were mean, while many were superb ; and of the mosque-like 
larger buildings, which occasionally appeared, and which were 
supposed to be rural temples, some were grand and imposing. 
A profusion of bold sculpture, was the prevailing characteristic, 
and perhaps defect, of all. The inhabitants, who thronged the 
wayside in great numbers, appeared excited with surprise and ex- 
ultation, on beholding the large company of strangers apparently 
in the custody of their military, while the disarmed condition of 



28 

the latter, and the bodies of the slain, were a mystery they could 
not explain. Many of the husbandmen were observed to be in 
possession of bows and arrows, and some of the women held rusty 
spears. The predominant costume of both sexes was a pale blue 
tunic, gathered in at the breast and descending to the knee, with 
reticulated buskins, of red cord, covering the calf of the leg. 
The women, with few exceptions, were of fine form, and the high- 
est order of Indian beauty, with an extraordinary affluence of 
black hair, tastefully disposed, and decorated with plumes and 
flowers. At the village where the dead and wounded were left 
with their relatives and friends, doleful lamentations were heard, 
until the expedition approached the city. 

The walls of this metropolis were sixty feet high, sloping in- 
ward from the foundation, surmounted by a parapet which over- 
hung in a concave curve and rested upon a plain moulding. — 
They were evidently a massive work of a remote period, for 
although constructed of large blocks of granitic stone, white and 
glittering in the sun, passing ages had corroded rough crevices 
between the layers and the once perfect cornices had become 
indented by the tooth of time. The sculptured annals of the 
city recorded them an antiquity of four thousand years. They 
formed a parallelogram four miles long and three in width, thus 
inclosing an area of nearly twelve square miles, and they breasted 
the cardinal points of the horizon with a single gate or propylon, 
midway on every side. On approaching the eastern gate, the 
travellers discovered that the foundations of the walls were laid 
in a deep foss or moat a hundred feet wide, nearly full to its 
brink and abounding with water-fowl. It was replenished from 
the mountains, and discharged its surplus waters into the lakes 
of the valley. It was to be crossed by a draw-bridge now raised 
over the gate ; and the parapet was thronged with the populace 
to behold the entrance of so large a number of strangers for 
whom there was no return. 

At a signal from the young chief, the bridge slowly descended 
and the cavalcade passed over ; but the folding gates, which 
were composed of blocks of stone curiously dovetailed together) 
and which revolved upon hinges of the same material by a ball 
and socket contrivance above and below, were not yet opened, 
and the party were detained on the bridge. A small oval orifice 



29 

only appeared, less than a human face, and a ear was applied 
there to receive an expected word in a whisper. This complied 
with, the ponderous gates unfolded, and a vista of solemn mag- 
nificence was presented to the view. It was a vista at once of 
colossal statues and trees, interminable in perspective and extend- 
ing, as it was found, the whole length of the city to its western 
gate. Incredible as it may be, until we reflect upon the ancient 
statuary of the eastern world, Velasquez reports each and all of 
these monuments as being exactly of the height of the city wall, 
that is, sixty feet, and all possessing the proportions of the hu- 
man figure. He adds, what is equally marvelous, that no two of 
them were precisely alike in countenance, and very few in their 
sculptural costume. There was some distinctive emblem upon 
each, and he was informed that they were statues of the ancient 
kings of Assyria, from before the foundation of Babylon, and of 
their descendants in the Aztec empires of this continent. They 
stood sixty feet apart, with a smaller monument of some mytho- 
logical animal between each, and were said to number one hun- 
dred and fifteen, on each side of the avenue they formed, which 
was one hundred and twenty feet in width. A similar but shorter 
avenue, it appears, crossed the city from north to south, having 
a proportional number of such monuments through its entire ex- 
tent ; and these two grand avenues ran through wide areas of 
green sward richly grouped with lofty trees. But the translator 
finds himself trespassing upon forbidden ground and must for- 
bear. 

As the cavalcade advanced through this highway to the centre 
of the city, they found it crowded on each side with the masses 
of the population assembled to behold a spectacle so unprece- 
dented and mysterious ; but the utmost order prevailed and even 
the silence was profound. The news of the slaughter and dis- 
person of their military guardians, by an army of strangersi 
wielding deadly weapons of fire and smoke, had already ran 
through every quarter of the city with increasing exaggeration 
and terror ; but the people wisely left its investigation to their 
constituted authorities, and were rendered comparatively tran- 
quil by their personal observation of its actual results. Arrived 
at the quadrated point where the two great avenues we have 
described intersect,- Mr. Huertis boldly demanded of his guide 
the further course and character of his destination. He was an- 



30 

swered by his dignified companion, that he would be conducted to 
the building immediately before him, which is described as one 
of majestic dimensions and style, where the monarch of the nation 
daily assembled with his councillors, at the hour of noon, to ad- 
minister justice and listen to complaints. In the meantime, his 
wounded friend could be placed in a state of greater ease and re- 
pose, in one of the appartments of the edifice, while the mules 
and baggage could be disposed of in its basement vaults. When 
this was accomplished the hours of audience had arrived. 

The entire party of strangers, with the young chief and seve- 
ral of his subordinates, were then led into a large and lofty hall 
surrounded by columns, and displaying three raised seats covered 
with canopies of rich di-apery and design. On the one of these, 
which stood at the eastern end, sat the monarch himself, a per- 
sonage of grave but benignant aspect, about sixty years of age, 
arrayed in scarlet and gold, and having a golden image of the 
rising sun, of extraordinary splendor, displayed on the back of 
his throne. On the seat on the southern side, sat a venerable 
man of advanced age, not less gorgeously attired ; and the seat 
at the western end was occupied by a functionary of similar years 
and costume. Around the apartment, and especially around the 
steps of the throne, sat other grave looking men, in scarlet robes. 
Huertis, Velasquez, and their Indians, still carrying their loaded 
rifles, of which he had not suffered them to be deprived, stood 
on the left side of the monarch, and the young chief and his sol- 
diers on the right. The latter gave his statement with truth and 
manly candour, although the facts which he averred seemed to 
fill the whole council with amazement, and left a settled gloom 
upon the imperial brow. The whole proceeding possesses great 
interest in Velasquez's narrative, but we can only briefly state 
that it resulted in the decision, which was concurred in by the 
associate councillors, that the strangers having magnanimously 
released and restored the company of guards, after they had sur- 
rendered themselves prisoners ; and having voluntarily entered 
the city in a peaceable manner, when they might possibly have 
effected their escape, were entitled to their personal freedom, 
within the limits of the city, and might eventually, under vo- 
luntary but indispensible obligations, become eligible to all the 
privileges of citizenship, within the same limits. In the mean 



31 

time, they were to be maintained as prisoners of state, on con- 
dition that they made no use of their dangerous weapons, nor 
exhibited them to terrify the people. With this decision, Huertis 
and his companions were perfectly satisfied, for the latter had 
undiminished confidence in his ability and determination to achieve 
their escape, as soon as he should have accomplished the scientific 
objects of his expedition. On leaving the hall of justice, they 
observed the elder military chief, of whom a slight mention has 
been made, brought in with two others of inferior rank ; and it 
was afterwards currently reported that they had been sentenced 
to close imprisonment. It was also ascertained by Velasquez, that 
the four companies of rangers, already noticed, composing a regi- 
ment of two hundred men, constituted the whole military force of 
this timid and peaceful people. 

From this point, our abstract of the narrative must be chiefly 
a brief catalogue of the most important of the concluding events. 
The place of residence assigned to our travellers, was the vacant 
wing of a spacious and sumptuous structure, at the western extrem- 
ity of the city, which had been appropriated, from time immem- 
orial, to the surviving remnant of an ancient and singular order 
of priesthood called Kaanas, which, it was distinctly asserted 
in their annals and traditions, had accompanied the first migration 
of this people from the Assyrian plains. Their peculiar and 
strongly destinctive lineaments, it is now perfectly well ascer- 
tained are to be traced in many of the sculptured monuments of 
the central American ruins, and were found still more abundantly 
on those of Iximaya. Forbidden, by inviolably sacred laws, from 
intermarrying with any persons but those of their own caste, they 
had here dwindled down, in the course of many centuries, to a 
few insignificant individuals, diminutive in stature, and imbecile 
in intellect. They were, nevertheless, held in high veneration 
and afiection by the whole Iximayan community, probably as 
living specimens of an antique race so nearly extinct. Their 
position, as an order of priesthood, it is now known, had not 
been higher, for many ages, if ever, than that of religious mimes 
and bacchanals, in a certain class of pagan ceremonies, highly 
popular with the multitude. This, indeed, is evident from their 
characteristics in the sculptures. Their ancient college, or hos- 
pital, otherwise vacant and forlorn, was now chiefly occupied by 
a much higher order of priests, called Mahaboons, who were 



32 

their legal and sacerdotal guardians. With a Yachin, one of the 
junior brethren of this order, named Vaalpeor, a young man of 
superior intellect and attainments, Velasquez soon cultivated a 
friendly and confidential acquaintance, which proved reciprocal 
and faithful. And while Huertis was devoting all his time and 
energies to the antiquities, hieroglyphics, ethnology, science, 
pantheism, theogony, arts, manufactures, and social institutions 
of this unknown city and people, the ear of this young pagan 
priest was as eagerly imbibing, from the wiley lips of Velasquez, 
a similar knowledge of the world at large, to him equally new and 
enchanting. If Huertis had toiled so severely, and hazarded 
so much, both as to himself and companions, to acquire a know- 
ledge of this one city and people, it soon became clear to the 
penetrating mind of Velasquez, that Vaalpeor possessed enough 
both ot mental ambition and personal energy to incur equal toil 
and risk to learn the wonders of the cities and races of the greater 
nations of mankind. Indeed, this desire evidently glowed in his 
breast with a consuming fervor, and when Velasquez, after due 
observation proposed the liberation of the whole expedition, with 
Vaalpeor himself, as its protected companion, the now consciously 
imprisoned pagan, horror-stricken at first, regarded the proposi- 
tion with complacency, and finally, with a degree of delight, re- 
gardless of consequences. It was, however, mutually agreed 
that the design should be kept secret from Huertis, until ripe for 
success. A serious obstacle existed in his plighted guardianship 
of the Kaana children, whom he could abandon only with his 
lifi ; ba'; evjn this was not deemed insurmountable. 
In the meantime, Huertis, to facilitate his own objects, had 
prevailed upon his entire party to conform in dress and habits 
with the community in which they lived. The city was surroun- 
ded on all sides by a lofty colonade, sustaining the upper esplan- 
ade of the city walls, and forming a broad covered walk beneath, 
in which the population could promenade, sheltered from sun and 
shower. In these places of general resort, the new citizens ap- 
peared daily, until they had become familiarly known to the 
greater part of the eighty-five thousand inhabitants of the city. 
Huertis, moreover, had formed domestic and social connexions ; 
was the welcome guest of families of the highest rank, who were 
fascinated with the information he afibrded them of the external 
world ; had made tacit converts to liberty of many influential 



33 

persons ; had visited each of the four grand temples which stood 
in the centre of the several quadrangular divisions of the city, 
and externally conformed to their idolatrous worship. He had 
even been admitted into some of the most sacred mysteries of 
these temples, while Velasquez, more retired, and avowedly more 
scrupulous, was content to receive the knowledge thus acquired 
in long conversations by the sick couch of poor Hammond, now 
rapidly declining to the grave. 

Mr. Hammond's dreadful wound had but partially healed in the 
course of several months ; his constitution was exhausted, and he 
was dying of remittent fever and debility. His chief regret was 
that he could not assist his friend Huertis in his researches and 
drawings, and determine the place of the city by astronomical ob. 
servations which his friends were unable to take. The day be- 
fore he died, he was visited by some of the medical priesthood, 
who on seeing numerous light spots upon his skin, where the pre- 
paration with which he had stained it had disappeared, they pro- 
nounced him a leper, and ordered that all intercourse with the 
building should be suspended. No explanation would convince 
them to the contrary, and his death confirmed them in their 
opinion. Availing himself of this opportunity, and under the 
plea that it was important to their safety, Vaalpeor removed the 
two orphan children in his charge to one of the country temples 
in the plain, and the idle mules of the strangers were employed to 
carry tents, couches, and other bulky requisites for an unprovi- 
ded rural residence. It may be added that he included among 
them much of the baggage of his new friends, with the greater 
part of their rifles and amunition. In the mean time Huertis, 
Velasquez, and about half of their party, were closely confined to 
the part of the edifice assigned for their occupation. Their 
friend Hammond had been interred without the walls, in a field 
apropriated to lepers, by the civic authorities. Huertis, was 
now informed of the plan of escape, but was not ready ; he had 
more daguerreotype views to take, and many curiosities to collect. 
The interdicted period of nine days having expired, the young 
priest, who had free access to the city at all times, again appeared 
at their abode and urged an early retreat, as the return of the 
orphan children would soon be required. But Huertis was abroad 
in the city and could not be consulted. He remained absent all 
the day, and did not return to his appartments at night. It was 



34 

so all tlie next day and night, and Valasquez was deeply alarmed. 
On searching his rooms for his papers, drawings and instruments, 
for secret transmital into the country, he found them all remov- 
ed, including those of Mr. Hammond which were among them. 
It was then vainly hoped that he had effected his escape with all 
his treasures, but his Indians knew nothing of the matter. 

Shortly after this discovery, Vaalpeor arrived with its explana- 
tion. Huertis had made a confidant of his intended flight whom 
he idly hoped would accompany it, and she had betrayed him- 
His offence, after his voluntary vows, and his initiation into the 
sacred mysteries, was unpardonable, and his fate could not be 
doubted. Indeed, the trembling priest at length admitted that 
he had been sacrificed in due form upon the high altar of the 
sun, and that he himself had beheld the fatal ceremony. Huer- 
tis however, had implicated none of his associates, and there was 
yet a chance of escape. To pass the gates was impossible ; but 
the wall might be descended in the night by ropes, and to swim 
the moat was easy. This was effected by Velasquez and fifteen 
of his party the same night ; the rest either did not make the 
attempt or failed, and the faithlul Antonio was among them. 
The fugitives had scarcely reached the secluded retreat of Vaal- 
peor, and mounted their mules, before the low yelp of blood- 
hounds was heard upon their trail and soon burst into full cry. 
But the dogs were somewhat confused by the scent of so many 
footsteps on the spot at which the party mounted, and did not 
follow the mules until the horsemen led the way. This afforded 
time for the fugitives, racing their swift mules at full speed, to 
reach the opening of the valley, when Velasquez wheeled and 
halted, for the pursuers were close at hand. A conflict ensued 
in which many of the horsemen were slain, and the young kaana 
received an accidental wound of which he retains the scar. It 
must suffice to say, that the party eventually secured their retreat 
without loss of life ; and by break of day they were on a moun- 
tainous ridge many leagues from Iximaya. In about fourteen 
days, they reached Ocosingo, after great suffering. Here Velas- 
quez reluctantly parted with most of his faithful Indians, and 
here also died Vaalpeor, from the unaccustomed toil and depri- 
vations of the journey. Velasquez, with the two Aztec children, 
did not reach San Salvador until the middle of February, when 



35 



they became objects of the highest interest to the most inteUect- 
ual classes of that city. As the greatest ethnological curiosities 
m Imng form, that ever appeared among civilised men, he was 
advised to send them to the United States, and thence to Europe • 
and they are at present exhibiting in this country. When thev 
first arrived in New York, they were in the temporary possession 
ot a person who, not knowing their true origin and race, exhibited 
them as dwarfs; but on the arrival of theii- appointed guardian 
with the journal and narrative of Senor Velasquez, they were 
restored to their actual character, as stated in this publication 
rhej are supposed to be respectively eight and ten years of age • 
and both are lively, playful and affectionate. But it is as speci- 
mens of an absolutely unique and nearly extinct race of mankind 
that they claim the attention of physiologists and all men of 



science 



LIBRPRY OF CONGREf 



001 118 933 



